Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and cried as we remembered Zion. In the midst of it we hung our harps on poplar trees. It was there that those who had captured us demanded that we sing. Those who guarded us wanted us to entertain them. They said: Sing a song from Zion for us! read more.
How could we sing Jehovah's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

Your servants find pleasure in her stones and feel pity for her dust.


For the sake of the house of Jehovah our God, I will seek what is good for you.

May Jehovah bless you from Zion so that you may see Jerusalem prosper all the days of your life. May you live to see your children's children. Let there be peace in Israel!

I said: Turn away from me. Let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.

Those among you will rebuild the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.

For Zion's sake I will not remain silent. For Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until its righteousness shines like the sunrise and its salvation burns brightly like a torch.

I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They will never be silent day or night. Whoever calls on Jehovah, do not allow yourselves any rest, and do not give him any rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it an object of praise throughout the earth.

All who love Jerusalem, be happy and rejoice with her. All who mourn for her be glad with her.

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem. When you see it, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like new grass. The power of Jehovah will be made known to his servants, but he will condemn his enemies.

Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears. Then I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Say this to them: 'My eyes flow with tears day and night without stopping because my dear people will suffer massive destruction. It will be a very serious blow.

You people escaped from the sword. Now leave! Do not just stand there. Remember Jehovah in a distant land and think about Jerusalem. We have been put to shame. We have been disgraced. Shame covers our faces, because foreigners have gone into the holy places of Jehovah's temple.

My eyes fail from weeping. I am in torment. My heart is pulled out of me to the ground because my people are destroyed. Because of the young children and babies at the breast who are falling without strength in the open squares of the town.

Rivers of water run down from my eyes because pf the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes stream without stopping. They have no rest. Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven. read more.
My eyes bring me pain because of all the daughters of my town.


They will devour your harvest and your food. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They will devour your flocks and your herds. They will devour your vines and your fig trees. They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.

Her people are sighing and looking for bread. They have given their desired things for something to eat to give them life. See, O Jehovah, and take note. She has become a thing of shame.

My people will go into exile because they do not understand what I am doing. Honored men will starve, and common people will be parched with thirst.

I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me. My priests and my responsible men are dying. They look for food to give them new life.

This wickedness is like a brushfire. It burns not only briers and thorns but the forests, too. It sends up vast clouds of smoke. The land is blackened by the fury of Jehovah of Hosts. The people are fuel for the fire, and no one spares anyone else. They slice off what is on the right hand, but they will still be hungry. In the end they will even eat the flesh of their own arms (offspring) (turn upon themselves). read more.
Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, Ephraim will feed on Manasseh, and both will devour Judah. But even then Jehovah's anger will not be satisfied. His hand is still poised to unleash his power.

Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom Jehovah your God has given you. The kindest and most sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left. He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left. These are hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities. read more.
The kindest and most sensitive woman among you, so sensitive and tender that she would not even step on an ant, will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter. She will not share with them the afterbirth from her body and the children she gives birth to. She will secretly eat them out of dire necessity. These are hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of your cities.

In that day you will make your plant grow. In the morning you will make your seed flourish; but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

Jehovah spoke his word about the drought to Jeremiah: Judah mourns and its gates collapse. The people of Judah are filled with bereavement as they sit on the ground. Their cry goes up from Jerusalem. Important people send their assistants out for water. They do not find any water at the cisterns. They return with their containers empty. They cover their heads, because they are ashamed and dishonored. read more.
There is no rain in the land and the ground is cracked. The farmers are disappointed. They cover their heads. Even deer in the fields give birth and abandon their young because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They sniff the wind like jackals. Their eyesight fails because they have no green plants.

Joy and gladness are taken from the fruitful orchards and fields and from the land of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the wine presses. No one walks on the grapes with shouts of joy. There are shouts, but they are not shouts of joy.

My eyes fail from weeping. I am in torment. My heart is pulled out of me to the ground because my people are destroyed. Because of the young children and babies at the breast who are falling without strength in the open squares of the town. They say to their mothers: Where is grain and wine? When they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of the town. Their life is drained out while on their mother's breast. What example am I to give you? What comparison am I to make for you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What am I to make equal to you, so that I may give you comfort, O virgin daughter of Zion? Your destruction is great like the sea. Who is able to make you well? read more.
The visions your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish! They have not made you fully aware of your sin so your fate might be changed. They have seen for you false words, driving you away. All who go by make a noise with their hands at you. They make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem. They say: Is this the town that was the crown of everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth? All your enemies are opening their mouths wide against you. They hiss and whistle through their teeth and say: We have made a meal of her. Certainly this is the day we have been looking for. It has come and we see it. Jehovah accomplished his purpose. He accomplished what he said he would with the orders he gave in the days that are past. He tore down and shows no compassion. He causes your enemies to rejoice. He lifted up the horn (power) of your adversaries. Let your cry go up to Jehovah: O wall of the daughter of Zion let your weeping be flowing down like a stream day and night. Give yourself no rest. Do not let your eyes hold back the drops of sorrow. Rise up! Cry out in the night at the beginning of the night watches. Let your heart be flowing out like water before the face of Jehovah. Lift up your hands to him for the life of your young children who are falling down starving in every street. Look, O Jehovah! Why are you punishing us like this? Women are eating the bodies of the children they loved! Priests and prophets are killed in the Temple! Both young and old lie dead in the streets. Enemy swords kill young men and women. You slaughtered them without mercy on the day of your anger. You invited my enemies to hold a festival of terror all around me. No one could escape on that day of your anger. They murdered my children, whom I had raised and loved.

The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink. The young children cry out for bread, and no man gives it to them. Those used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets. Those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust. The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overturned suddenly without a hand lifted to help her. read more.
Her holy ones were cleaner than snow. They were whiter than milk. Their bodies were redder than corals. Their form was like the sapphire. Their face is blacker than night. In the streets no one has knowledge of them. Their skin is hanging on their bones, and they are dry, they have become like wood. Those killed by the sword are better off than those who died of starvation. For these die slowly and waste away from lack of food from the field. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The seeds rot under dirt clods. The storehouses are desolate. The barns are torn down because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep suffer. I cry to you Jehovah! For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame burned all the trees of the field. read more.
Yes, the beasts of the field pant for you. The water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.